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Finland Adopts Ukrainian Tactics, Ditches Heated Tents for Battlefield Dugouts
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The Finnish Defense Forces have begun training conscripts to spend nights in dugout shelters instead of heated tents during field exercises in order to reduce their exposure to enemy drones, drawing on lessons from the war in Ukraine, according to Yle on December 2.
According to Yle, conscripts are now taught to conceal themselves without tents, sleeping in dugouts that provide better protection from aerial surveillance and thermal imaging than canvas shelters.
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The article says this approach adapts Ukrainian battlefield doctrine rather than abolishing tents altogether, with dugouts intended to make soldiers harder for drones to detect in combat conditions.
Previously, overnight stays in dugouts were mainly practiced by reconnaissance troops, but training has now been expanded to other units expected to operate on or near the front line.
Colonel Niko Hälttä, director of the Reserve Officer School, told Yle that conscripts are increasingly instructed to build temporary shelters on their own, in pairs or in small patrols of three to four people.
“Instead of going into a tent, they build temporary shelters from natural or other available materials,” Hälttä said, adding that training uses existing depressions in the terrain or pits dug into the ground, which are then insulated with conifer branches and other foliage.
He also noted that conscripts still dig by hand and practice sleeping in dugouts during combat exercises before rotating back to areas with heated tents, and said the shift toward dugout accommodation has not lengthened the overall training schedule.
Earlier, it was reported that Finland planned large-scale exercises involving around 15,000 troops across multiple training areas to validate joint wartime capability, improve interoperability with allies, and ensure that lessons from modern warfare are directly reflected in its defense training.
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